Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-07-02

than woman rs she rolled out her majestic
sentences with grandeur and freedom Of
utterance 10 which am, alas, quite unable to
do justice.
aWait; would show thee something, that
no title Of my crime may be hidden from
thee Do thou, o, Holly, open the garment
on the breast OF the dead KallilSrates, for per-
chance my lord may fear to touch HIMSELF
obeyed with trembling hands. II seemed
dissertation Of an unhallowed thing to
touch that sleeping image of the live man by
my side. Presently his broad chest was bare,
and there upon it, right over the heart, was q
wound, evidently inflicted with a spear.
"Thou seest, Knllikrates," she said. "Bs.
held, it was Iwho slew thee In the place Of
life gave thee death slew thee because Of
the Egyptian Amenartas, whom thou didst
love; for by her arts she held thy heart, and
her could not slay as buc now / slew the
woman, for she was too strong for me. In
my haste and bitter anger / slew thee, and
now for all these days have lamented thee,
and waited for thy coming And thou hast
come, and none can stand between thee and
me, and Of truth now for death will give
thee life-not life eternal, for that none can
give, but life and youth shall endure for
thousands and thousands Of years, and with
1t pomp and power and wealth, and oil things
that are good and beautiful, such as have
been to no man before thee, nor shall be to
any man who comes after. And now one
thing more, and thou shalt rest and make
ready for the day Of thy new birth. Thou
seest this body which WINS thine own. For all
these centuries it hath been my comfort and
my companion, but now need 1t no more,
for have thy living presence, and it can but
serve to stir up memories of that which had
fain forget Let 1t therefore go back to the
dust from which kept it.
"Beholdl l hare prepared against this
happy hourp and going to the other shelf,
or stone ledge, which, she said, had served her
for bed, she took from 1t a largo vitrifed
double handled vase, the mouth Of which was
tied up with bladder. This she loosed, and
then, having bent down and gently kissed the
white forehead OF the dead man, she undid
the vase, and sprinkled its contents carefully
over the form, taking, l observed, tho great
est precautions against any drop OF them
touching us or herself, and then poured out
what remained of the liquid upon the chest
and head Instantly q dense vapor arose
and the cave was filed with choking fumes
that prevented us from seeing anything while
the deadly acid Qor / presume 1t was some
tremendous preparation Of that sorn did ii
work. From the spot where the body lay
came q fierce fz1ng and cracking sound
which ceased, however, before the fumes had
cleared away. At last they were all gone
except little cloud, which still hung over
the corpse In couple of minutes more
this, too, had vanished, and wonderful as /
may seem, 1t is fact that on the stone bench
that had supported the mortal remains Of tn.
ancient Kallikrates for 80 many centuries Their,
was now nothing to be seen but few hand
fuls OF smoking white powder. The acid haC
utterly destroyed the body, and even il
places eaten into tho stone. Ayesha stoopet
, down, and taking handful OF this powder il
her grasp, threw 1t into the air, saying at th'
same time, in q voice OF calm solen!sity;
"Dust to dustl-the past to the paAl-th'
dead to the deadl Kallikrates is dead, and
born againi"
! The ashes foated noiselessly to the ROCKY
door, and we stood in awed silence AMI
watched them fall, too overcome for words.
Now leave me, she said, land sleep il v,
may. must watch and think, for to-mor
low night we go hence, and the time Is long
sinoe trod the path that we must follow"
Accordingly we bowed and left her.
As wo passed to our own apartment
, peeped into Jobs sleeping place 70 sec how b
Jared, for he had gone away just before our
interview with the murdered Ustana, quit.
FRUSTRATED by the terrors Of the Amahaggel
festivity. He was sleeping soundly, good
honest fellow that he was, and rejoicod {.
think that his nerves, which, like those o
most uneducated people, were far from
, that dreadful day Then we catered GU
own chamber, and here at last poor Leo
who, ever since he had looked upon that fro
zen image of his living self, had been In +,
s state not far removed from stupefaction
e burst out into torrent OF grief. Now tina
r he was no longer in the presence of tn
! dreaded She. his sense of the awfulness Of al
|. that had happened, and more especially o
: tine wicked murder Of Ustane, who was bonn,
10 him by ties so close, broke upon him lik
a storm and dashed him into an agony Of re
Q morse and terror which was painful to wit
I ness. He cursed himself-he cursed the hou
n when we had first seen the writing on tn
! sherd, which was being so mysteriously veri
. fled, and bitterly he cursed his own weakness
Ayesha he dared not CURSE who dared spea
evil OF such woman, whose CONSCIOUSNESS
for aught we knew was watching US ut thi
Il very momentl
J. "What am to do, old fellow9" no groaned
h resting his head against my shoulder in til
. extremity Of his grief. Il let her be killed
!. not that I could help that, but within tiy
: minutes was kissing her murderess over he
n body. l am degraded brute, but cannc
d resist that" land here his voice sunk) "awfr
It soreness know shall do it again tomol
J. row; know that am in her power for a
~ ways IL never saw her again Shout
!, never think of anybody else for all my life
!. Unjust follow her as needle follows a mas
II net; would not 60 away now IL could;
q could not leave her, my legs would not carr
d me, but my mind Is still clear enough, and |
II my mind hate her--at least think so.
Is all so horrible; and that-that bodyl Wins
70 can make Of itl 1t was mel l am sold int
y bondage old fellow, and she will take m
j. soul as the price Of herselfp
Then for the first time told him that We
10 IN but very little better position, and al
n bound to say that, notwithstanding his ow
O. infatuation, he had the decency to symp
" thize with me. Perhaps he did not think
q worth while being jealous, realizing that
y had no cause so far as the lady was concerAe,
II ! went on to suggest that we should try to ru
'k away, but we soon rejected the project
ID futile, and, to be perfectly honest do n,
20 believe that either of us would really hay
Ia left Ayesha even II some superior power ho
suddenly offered to convey us from the
gloomy caves and set us down in Cambridg
We could no more have left her than moi
"a can leave the light that destroysit. We we
ut like confirmed opium eaters; in our momen
* of reason we well knew the deadly nature
a. our pursuit, but we certainly were not pr
or pared to abandon its terrible delights
90 No doubt she was a wicked person, and
y doubt she had murdered Ustane when 81